Forum Discussion

BirdDog's avatar
BirdDog
Assistant Professor
7 years ago

Sayings that irk me

So, there are common sayings that have two ways of wording them that rub me the wrong way when I hear the expression worded a particular way. Two cases:

 

1. Standing "online" instead of "inline". Most everywhere I've been there is no line painted on the floor to stand "on" and I'm certainly not standing on top of anyone. Instead, I am standing "in" a line of people.

 

2. A "bald" faced lie instead of "bold" faced. How does someone have a bald face when it comes to their intention, shave it? Instead I was taught bold face, as a person is being pretty bold to lie to your face.

 

Yea, I'm being a bit grammar eccentric but makes me cringe a bit when I hear them. Anyone have others?

 

And happy voting day! Sure glad the political ads will be over although they'll probably start up with the 2020 ones before we get a real rest from it.

  • maratsade's avatar
    maratsade
    Distinguished Professor IV

     

    ---Standing "online" instead of "inline".

    Never heard this one!  (And it should be "in line")

     

    Both bald-faced lie and bold-faced lie are correct -- they mean slightly different things.  Bald-faced lie is the same as barefaced lie (which is used in the UK), which means the person is lying openly (and the bare in it refers to being uncovered, not to being hairless).  Bold-faced lie is more of a lie that's more disguised and more impudent. Bold-faced is used in the sense of shamelessness and impudence.

     

     


    BirdDog wrote:

    So, there are common sayings that have two ways of wording them that rub me the wrong way when I hear the expression worded a particular way. Two cases:

     

    1. Standing "online" instead of "inline". Most everywhere I've been there is no line painted on the floor to stand "on" and I'm certainly not standing on top of anyone. Instead, I am standing "in" a line of people.

     

    2. A "bald" faced lie instead of "bold" faced. How does someone have a bald face when it comes to their intention, shave it? Instead I was taught bold face, as a person is being pretty bold to lie to your face.

     

    Yea, I'm being a bit grammar eccentric but makes me cringe a bit when I hear them. Anyone have others?

     

    And happy voting day! Sure glad the political ads will be over although they'll probably start up with the 2020 ones before we get a real rest from it.


     

    • BirdDog's avatar
      BirdDog
      Assistant Professor

      maratsade wrote:

       

      ---Standing "online" instead of "inline".

      Never heard this one!  (And it should be "in line")

       

      Oh, I hear it all the time even from news people. Guess my ears are tuned to detect it. And I debated the one word versus two thing and went with the single, my bad, agree the split is correct. I was joking about the shave thing, just sounds off to me and never use bald in that context.

       

      • maratsade's avatar
        maratsade
        Distinguished Professor IV

        You got another thing coming
        It's a doggy dog world
        For all intensive purposes

    • Reggie's avatar
      Reggie
      Teaching Assistant

      Sometimes words have many meanings or overtime they change thier meaning.

      An example of this is the word "Bald". The Bald Eagle is not bald.  Is anyone willing to explain this.

       

      Reggie

      • GabeU's avatar
        GabeU
        Distinguished Professor IV

        Reggie wrote:

        Sometimes words have many meanings or overtime they change thier meaning.

        An example of this is the word "Bald". The Bald Eagle is not bald.  Is anyone willing to explain this.

         

        Reggie


        It's not really that the word bald has an alternate meaning, it's that the word bald, in this context, is from the word piebald, denoting the white head.  

         

        Edited.

  • GabeU's avatar
    GabeU
    Distinguished Professor IV

    Like Jay, "I could care less" is one that bugs me.  If you could care less that means you care, as you still have room to care less.    

     

    I hate the mispronunciation of commonly used words even more.  

     

    It's height, not heighth.

    It's especially, not expecially.

    It's escape, not excape

    It's asterisk, not asterix.

    It's ask, not aks.

    It's jewelry, not jewlery.

    It's realtor, not realitor.  Actually, it's Realtor, but I can deal with people treating it as a common noun instead of a proper noun.  

    And for God's sake, it's nuclear, not nukuler, or however the heck you would spell that word.  I thought pronouncing it as nukuler died out with the Reagan Administration.  :p 

     

    That's just the tip of the iceberg.  

     

    Yeah, I'm kind of picky when it comes to pronunciation.  

    • BirdDog's avatar
      BirdDog
      Assistant Professor

      GabeU wrote:

       

      "I hate the mispronunciation of commonly used words even more."

       

      Agree, although the Brits and Aussies can be just as bad. 

      • cuddlebug0's avatar
        cuddlebug0
        Freshman

        Hey BirdDog!  How are you doing?  Do you remember me?  Cuddlebug0 is my online now, with Joyce being my actual.  I use to chat back and forth with you on the board before we daughters and I moved.  Yep...back again.  This time, I did not know I had Hughes until I got their first bill...we were under another name at the time.  No cable out in the country in this area either.  I see Hughes has made some changes.  I am checking them out a little at a time.

         

        Glad to see you are still on the boards,

        Joyce (Cuddlebug0)